Foreword Reviews announced the winners of its INDIES Book of the Year Awards last week. The awards recognize the best books published in 2021 from small, independent, and university presses. Histria Books is honored to have received Gold in the category of Biography for Dracul – Of the Father: The Untold Story of Vlad Dracul by A.K. Brackob.
Since 1998, Foreword Reviews has provided trade book reviews of the best titles from independent presses. “This annual exercise in Indie excellence continues to surprise us both qualitatively and quantitatively—which makes the judging process for our editors that much more difficult because there are so many books deserving recognition,” says Matt Sutherland, Foreword’s Executive Editor. “You can be certain that this year’s lineup of medal winners will thrill all readers.” You can view a list of the winners here.
For this year’s competition, over 2,700 entries were submitted in 55 categories, with Foreword’s editors choosing approximately 10 finalists per genre. Those finalists were then delivered to individual librarians and booksellers tasked with picking the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention winners.
Dracul – Of the Father is the first historical biography of the father of the famed Romanian Prince Vlad the Impaler, known as the historical Dracula. In his review published in the November/December 2021 issue of Foreword Reviews, John Murray stated, “Vivifying Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages, Dracul: Of the Father is the engrossing biography of a passionate leader who was overshadowed in history by his son, but who is seen to have made important contributions nonetheless.”
The author, Dr. A.K. Brackob, has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois. His other books include Scanderbeg: A History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion in Southeastern Europe in the Fifteenth Century and Mircea the Old: Father of Wallachia, Grandfather of Dracula.
Dracul – Of the Father, 456 pp., ISBN 978-1-59211-027-8, is available at HistriaBooks.com and from all major book retailers. Titles published under the various imprints of Histria Books are distributed worldwide by the Independent Publishers Group. For information on publishing with Histria Books, please visit HistriaBooks.com or contact us at info@histriabooks.com
